Pre-Trip
This is my first attempt at a trip report, so please bear with me.
We have been to WDW 2 times before as a family, in Dec 99 and Sept 02. Loved it both times! Our first trip in 99 we spent 7 days in the parks and one day off-site visiting Sea World, our second trip we split between Universal & WDW. The first 4 nights we spent at Universal, staying at the HRH, we loved IOA and enjoyed most parts of US, we also had a half day at Sea World. Then we switched to WDW for 6 nights, we went to both water parks, the 4 main parks and spent 1 day at Discovery Cove. I honestly thought that would be our last time there, which is why we tried to fit so much in during one trip. Our oldest was a Junior in HS, so I knew when she went off to college that would end our trips or so I thought!
Fast forward to this past August My DD18 was getting ready to leave for college,
I was really bummed, 
so to cheer myself up I was checking out a few travel sites, checking airline prices just for fun and doing a little wishing. I seriously had no plans for another trip, but then I stumbled upon a great RT air price. Cool! 
Still didnt mean anything though. And then, and I kid you not, that afternoon in the mail came a postcard from Disney with Fall rates, OK, now I hear you calling me, Disney says its time to come home . It was a sign! 
So, that evening I bring up the subject with my DH, ask him what he thought would be good prices on RT tickets and Hotel room. He answers with a number higher than I had found that day. Very Cool!!! Small snag, hes not interested in going again. When DD10 and I say it would be fun, he tells us to go. Really? Just the two of us? Yep.
Let the planning begin
Booked our dates, picked November 2-9th. Within 2 days of buying our airline tickets, the price doubled and now 1 ticket would cost what we paid for two, we were very happy with that! Decided on Pop Century, we had previously stayed at the AS Movies. DD10 and I spent a lot of time planning, and decided we wanted to do a little more relaxed trip this time take our time and notice the little things. From this site I had picked up a few little secrets and kept those to myself to surprise her with, nothing big, but I knew she would love them. Our past trips we had overdone the character dining, so we planned to skip these, although I did make a PS for the Ice Cream Social without her knowing it.
Well, in the past we had planned our trips 8 to 10 months in advance this trip was only 2 ½ months away. DD10 worried about spending money, she had always earned her own and this time didnt have the time for that option. I suggested a rummage sale and she jumped at the idea, Yeah!!! A clean room and a trip to WDW! Since her big Sis had just moved out for college she was getting a new bigger bedroom, perfect time to go through things and pick what to sell. She did an awesome job getting things ready and ended up making $77, we rounded it up to $100 for her.
We decided to do 4 days in the parks, with 2 down days maybe going to TL on one of them since BB was going to be closed. I ended up buying 5 day hoppers just in case we decided to spend another day in the parks, and if not I could save them for another trip. Yep, I said another trip DD18 was a little bummed she couldnt go so I promised her a trip with just her and I in the future. Now we just had to wait for November 2nd.
This is my first attempt at a trip report, so please bear with me.
We have been to WDW 2 times before as a family, in Dec 99 and Sept 02. Loved it both times! Our first trip in 99 we spent 7 days in the parks and one day off-site visiting Sea World, our second trip we split between Universal & WDW. The first 4 nights we spent at Universal, staying at the HRH, we loved IOA and enjoyed most parts of US, we also had a half day at Sea World. Then we switched to WDW for 6 nights, we went to both water parks, the 4 main parks and spent 1 day at Discovery Cove. I honestly thought that would be our last time there, which is why we tried to fit so much in during one trip. Our oldest was a Junior in HS, so I knew when she went off to college that would end our trips or so I thought!
Fast forward to this past August My DD18 was getting ready to leave for college,
I was really bummed, so to cheer myself up I was checking out a few travel sites, checking airline prices just for fun and doing a little wishing. I seriously had no plans for another trip, but then I stumbled upon a great RT air price. Cool! Still didnt mean anything though. And then, and I kid you not, that afternoon in the mail came a postcard from Disney with Fall rates, OK, now I hear you calling me, Disney says its time to come home . It was a sign! So, that evening I bring up the subject with my DH, ask him what he thought would be good prices on RT tickets and Hotel room. He answers with a number higher than I had found that day. Very Cool!!! Small snag, hes not interested in going again. When DD10 and I say it would be fun, he tells us to go. Really? Just the two of us? Yep.
Let the planning begin
Booked our dates, picked November 2-9th. Within 2 days of buying our airline tickets, the price doubled and now 1 ticket would cost what we paid for two, we were very happy with that! Decided on Pop Century, we had previously stayed at the AS Movies. DD10 and I spent a lot of time planning, and decided we wanted to do a little more relaxed trip this time take our time and notice the little things. From this site I had picked up a few little secrets and kept those to myself to surprise her with, nothing big, but I knew she would love them. Our past trips we had overdone the character dining, so we planned to skip these, although I did make a PS for the Ice Cream Social without her knowing it.
Well, in the past we had planned our trips 8 to 10 months in advance this trip was only 2 ½ months away. DD10 worried about spending money, she had always earned her own and this time didnt have the time for that option. I suggested a rummage sale and she jumped at the idea, Yeah!!! A clean room and a trip to WDW! Since her big Sis had just moved out for college she was getting a new bigger bedroom, perfect time to go through things and pick what to sell. She did an awesome job getting things ready and ended up making $77, we rounded it up to $100 for her.
We decided to do 4 days in the parks, with 2 down days maybe going to TL on one of them since BB was going to be closed. I ended up buying 5 day hoppers just in case we decided to spend another day in the parks, and if not I could save them for another trip. Yep, I said another trip DD18 was a little bummed she couldnt go so I promised her a trip with just her and I in the future. Now we just had to wait for November 2nd.
I think she was a little nervous in the dark (again, I had made an offhand remark about alligators, whoops, I need to stop doing that), but enjoyed the sights. We were very early for our PS, so we walked around and enjoyed the WL, took a couple of pictures and enjoyed people watching. We even went outside and caught a bit of Wishes before going inside to be seated. Beebs noticed the fun right away, but I was hoping she wouldnt catch on to everything going on around her. She ordered a hamburger with fries and I had the pork chops, both were very good. Of course, since she had a burger and fries the waiter asked if she wanted ketchup and when she said yes he asked her to stand up. He pulled out her chair and told her to stand on it and let the table across the room know she needed the ketchup, I wasnt sure here how she would react. She is not a shy person, nor a quiet one, but she does like to act like she is at times
tonight wasnt a problem, she yelled with all her might and got the attention of the people who not only had all the ketchup, but everyone else in the room! She loved it and spent the next 10 minutes giggling about it. 
I had to remind her not to stop dead every time he buzzed with info because she was creating a traffic hazard 
. We grabbed a FP for TT and went over to M: S, I have to say I was a little concerned about this ride. I do not do well on the teacups or any spinning rides, but wanted to give it at least one try. We were assigned our jobs, I think we were the Pilot and Navigator and given 2 other rookies to ride with. We all did well and pushed our buttons, the bags went un-needed and we made it safely. For that I was thankful, and I didnt feel the least bit sick. We sent a couple of Space postcards 
and moved on to Ellens Energy Adventure, Beebs loved this ride. On our past trips we had somehow missed a ton of this type rides
too busy hitting all the big ones I guess, so Beebs and I had a mission to try as many rides that we had never done before as we could. Ellens EA was one of those rides. Another was Figment, which quickly became a favorite for Beebs. We had lunch at the Electric Umbrella, the kids chicken nuggets and a turkey sandwich, both OK. After a visit to the Living Seas (Beebs is a total dolphin freak) we took a bus to the AK.
while we enjoyed sitting for awhile. Next we took off for the Safari, and had a nice time there, seeing many animals. By then it was close to closing, so we took a bus over to MGM (we were the only ones on the bus) to catch Fantasmic. We had great seats about 12 rows up in the direct center, not sure if the show has changed but I liked it better than I remembered from our 1999 trip. Back to the resort where Beebs wanted to go swimming, and I was looking forward to sitting with my feet up. She quickly made a few friends and off they went around the pool, playing with the water toys. Beebs made me laugh here, she knows I keep a close eye on her and often looks at me to wave 
and make eye contact so we can communicate. Well, once I gave her the 5 minutes left signal she suddenly forgot where I was sitting and basically avoided all eye contact. I didnt really mind, I knew she was having a good time and I was enjoying visiting with another Mom there from NJ. My only reason to get her out was because I knew she would be tired in the morning, so after 2 hours I finally made sure she saw that it was time and off we went back to our room. A quick shower and off to bed.
and I found it to be just OK. We grabbed a hot dog at a cart for Beebs and went over to Mickeys PhilharMagic, which we both adored!
I tried. As we were leaving we were caught behind someone taking pics with Mickey, not wanting to bug them we stood back and waited
well Dale came along and helped himself to Pal Mickey. I wish I had my camcorder out because he was having a ball with him, holding him by the foot and motioning to the real Mickey standing in front of us. I told him to be careful because if the real Mickey saw what he was doing he would be in big trouble, and when I called Mickey the Big Cheese Dale pretended to smell something awful and make fun of Mickey. Beebs was laughing her head off!
(Beebs had me put my hand over her eyes during the snake part) before moving into the World Showcase. We started in Canada, and slowly made our way around
seeing Snow White we stopped to get the first Princess autograph, SW loved the picture and left a kiss along with her signature. We also ran into the Beast and Belle, Princess autograph #2 down! At Norway we went on the ride and Beebs noticed the Kidcot station and wanted to make a mask. Well, we found out that you could collect an item from each country to add to said mask, and here we are nearly around the World already. You know what that means! We went to Mexico and rode the ride there, and went on our mask quest. It was 7:30 when we started and by the time IllumiNations had begun we had gone back to each country and finished her mask. After IllumiNations we slowly walked to the front to catch our bus, and back to our room.
What I didnt plan on was how it would make her feel, although I should have known that, she is my daughter after all. It said non-drowsy formula, but there isnt a pill out there that works that way for me, they always knock me out. 
We took off for Typhoon Lagoon, spent a couple hours there, and tried to have a late lunch (need to say here that this was the worst experience by far in the food dept., I had to return the pizza because it was ice cold, and the one they replaced it with wasnt much better). After sitting to eat Beebs realized how tired she was. We left and went back to the room and Beebs took a nap, a several hour nap. I quietly wrote out some post cards and read for awhile; when she woke up we went to get some supper from the food court. Neither of us was very hungry, I had a small salad and she had a bowl of fruit. While there though, the song The Hustle came on and all the CMs went out into the center of the area and began dancing. 
Well, Beebs was on a mission and had already gotten his autograph, so even though we were first in line she declined to meet him as did a few others behind us (they were also waiting for the other 2). Well, poor Genie, he was heartbroken! He turned and walked sadly away
Beebs took the bait and went over and they had a grand time, he showed her several hidden Mickeys in the backdrop and danced with her too. Finally Jasmine & Aladdin came out and Beebs took a picture with all 3. We stopped in Ice Station Cool on our way to the Monorail, and I very nicely did NOT encourage Beebs to try the Beverly. We did try a few others and enjoyed those.
PoC, she was even wearing her t-shirt from the movie that day. Another few rides and then we caught Wishes, which was beautiful! HM, Dumbo, Snow White and Pooh followed, then we watched the 11pm Spectro from beside the castle. We hung out for a long time afterwards, watching the castle colors and waiting for the crowds to die down, did a little window shopping down Main Street and then found our way to the bus stop for the crowded ride back 
As we walked through the little glass making shop (forget the name) the guy just happened to be making a dolphin figurine, well that put us on hold until he was done. Beebs was mesmerized watching him, and I have to admit he did amazing work. Soon we were at the World of Disney and had our list out; we were able to cross all names off - but one, not bad! Beebs was doing pretty well on watching her money, several times she picked something up and then did the "is it worth it" look. She would ask me how much she had left, then usually decide to put it back, saving her money for something else. In the end she bought herself a very pretty bracelet, with Mickey heads on it with matching earrings, a Mickey link for a bracelet she had back home and a stuffed Minnie to go with her Pal Mickey. 
Finally we reach the dock and see another crowd waiting to get on, there must have been a thousand people standing there and here are the 4 of us waiting to get off. Beebs and this girl decide they look like Royalty coming off this boat
so as they let us off the girls start doing a royal wave. You know the one elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, they were loving it! I grabbed my camcorder and taped them leaving the ferry doing their royal wave to this horde of people waiting to get on, I am sure people thought they were crazy!!! But they didnt care and were having the time of their lives. So, if you were one of the many people standing there waiting to get on the ferry that night
that was my DD acknowledging you all as she went by, feeling like a real Princess! 
Why does this day always have to rush up on us? Once again, the plan was to get moving early and once again that was not to be. I was still getting up early each morning and getting ready before the wake-up call that was meant to wake up Beebs, so I was ready when the phone rang, she on the other hand just couldnt get going. When we finally did make it to the bus stop we waited for 2 busses and just as we got to the front of the line and were about to step on the waiting bus
Beebs says she needs to make a pit stop, so out of the line we go (people really were looking at us like we were crazy this time) 
At one point we ran into Devine and stopped to watch, how amazing! We walked through the Pangani Forest Trail and the Maharajah Jungle Trek, before Beebs used a FP to go on Kali
I stayed dry and watched her from the bridge. We went back over to Dino-Land and got a FP for Primeval Whirl, then played a few games as we waited. I won DD18 a frog and Beebs a turtle she promptly named Mo. (Yes, that was me the rest of the day walking around with a frog strapped to the top of our backpack and Mo the turtle popping his head out from inside!) After PW, we stopped on our way out of the park to eat at Flame Tree. I highly recommend this one for a different counter service meal, very good! Beebs had a childs meal, cant remember which one, but she liked the corn on the cob that went with it. I had the pork sandwich and it was really good, Beebs even helped with it. We got the childs meal deal and grabbed a water and some popcorn as we walked out of the park.
Looking outside, I could see that it had started to rain 
the first time during our whole trip, what timing! Beebs passed the time writing in her journal for school, and she seemed less nervous about flying alone with me this time. Guess since I had gotten her there OK, she felt a little better about my abilities, plus I promised no side trips to Japan. We were supposed to have a 3 ½ hour lay-over on the way home, but when we landed I checked my phone and had a message from my DH. He had checked on an earlier flight for us, told us the gate number, and said that it showed as full when he looked online but that we should look into it anyways. We did and were able to get on stand-by with seats next to each other in a flight less than an hour after we arrived! Yeah! Luggage didnt make it, but I would rather have been home and then go back to pick up the luggage later than sit in Minneapolis for over 3 hours with a tired Beebs.
